Real Life RG
by alaskatrailmutt
Summary: Neku wonders why real ground people are so weird. Learning to live life after death, everyday.


**I don't own anything all the wonderfull-ness. **

**From Neku POV**

I glanced at the girl in my math class .This was one of those days where school would not end and dragged on as if it was molasses running across a very clingy surface, sandpaper perhaps. The student, dressed in Edoga, was whining about how hard her life was; how utterly unhappy she was because her life did not meet up to her expectations. About how everything was horrible, her mother yelled at her, her teachers where mean, her boyfriend didn't talk to her. She talked as if she played no part in any of her behaviors, or the way people treated her was a reflection of how she treated them. Maybe, she never did what her mother said, maybe, she should try harder in class so teachers saw her as a person, maybe, she should ask her boyfriend what was wrong instead of judging the "cruel" people. The saddest thing was the girl, turned around, ignoring the lesson only to further the cycle. Just like every other girl in the class.

I was amazed by people in the RG. Had that been me a one time? Of course it had been. Everyone in the RG acted like life was a bunch of problems and that they had nothing to do with it. The students at school where the worst offenders. They couldn't see past their world to realize other people existed, that they mattered too. I knew more than a little about that. People complained in class about their bad grade in it instead of paying attention. Students who worked at night and still go good grades felt annoyed because lazier students didn't understand. Before life in the UG I blocked out everyone in the class room. I never noticed all the groups and tension clashing, just like the rest of the city.

Players reached out to one another but, in public school they were against each other. School taught students all the wrong things when trying to teach them the right things. Mindfulness, living today was ignored for the speech of, "when you get into college". Even if kids couldn't see that actually being able to do math WAS helpful, even more so when your dead, there wasn't a better way?

Beat walked up to me during lunch. I usually preferred, even now, to eat lunch alone. It gave me a break, it let me people watch, it let me do homework. People sat together, laughing, feeling, acting each owns little drama out. Beat usually skipped lunch to skate outside, so seeing him was a little bit of a surprise.

"Yo, phones?" I liked Beat, he was slow on the up-take but Beat never denied his feelings. Unlike many of the people in the school, he wouldn't play head games with other people or himself. I had over-heard some girls the other day scheming about the games they would play with other peoples emotions. A girl wearing a green skirt had failed her test, yet wasn't upset and gleefully proclaimed, "I'm going to act upset so that my boyfriend feels upset about me being sad!". The green skirt girl and her friend had laughed as if making other people who care for you sad was a perfectly normal thing to do. The girls had failed a class uncaringly. Shivers had run across my spin. I had broken into a cold sweat. This girl was going to act upset about her grade to manipulate her boyfriend's emotions. People could be that insecure? That self? That twisted? Player didn't have time to even think of manipulating people to such and extent.A boy ran into his friend. The supposed friend the boy ran into dragged in a counselor and a teacher on the way to eat lunch. Couldn't as friends one just apologize to the other? I started getting pissed off with the RG, Players never would have wasted time on the kind of trial nonsense. Time was precious, friendship was important, everyone was on the same team.

My mind came back to Beat, "Yeah Beat, what's up?" Beat frowned and shifted his feet. "I don't understand any of my classes. And I keep thinking about, you know and…" I looked at Beat. He had had friends before the UG, but he couldn't hang out with them much now because Beat started realizing they made fun of Rhyme. They made fun of him. Beat coughed, "Would ya… Help me out? I know you think I'm kinda a lost cause but…" I didn't exactly think that of Beat, I thought he wasn't good at school, that was true. "yeah beat its cool. Sit down." He sat across from me. People stared.

Something I noticed about people is they don't like anything against routine, anything unusual. Anything they didn't understand. It annoyed me. I lived three weeks with-out any routines at all. Yes, I like to have a plan for the day so I could make use of the time I had ahead of me. No, I did not think though, I had to be a certain way or do certain thing to make other people happy. Those extra miles where for me, not for them. My plans where for me, not to make my anyone else happy.

People stared at Beat because it was unusual for a guy like him, tough, ruff on the outside and caring on the inside, to sit like someone like me. I came off as cold and artistic. I guess emotional. I didn't care what they thought and neither did Beat. Beat looked apologetic, "Can we uh…start with math…Like cause that's my worst subject , man." I looked up from the food I had been eating, somehow RG food didn't taste as good. Probably, because I could eat food again whenever I wanted. "Sure. What's the problem?"

Beat handed me the paper, it was algebra-two work, "Ok what form is this in first of all…?" Beat stared at me and frowned. "…Standard?" Beat really didn't know. And the sad thing was Beat tried in school. He took notes in class, he tried his best so things at home would be better for Rhyme. If living in the UG taught some people that you-only-live-once meant to enjoy and fully live the moment, it had taught Beat that you couldn't waste the moment given to you either. I looked up at Beat , "Well, its vertex form, but that's ok- do you know what the difference is?" Beat again looked blank, but frustration was becoming more apparent in his eyes.

"This stuff don't make no sense to me yo!" Something else the UG taught me, when you start getting upset, realize why and step back. Every time I wanted to scream at Josh I couldn't. "Hey, Beat. It's ok. We can work on this together, we don't have to rush. You're not stupid, this is just you know…Think of math like a game." "Games usually suck, Phones." I laughed, "Yeah when you lose they do. Come on, Beat you just need to learn the rules. I'll teach you." "Fine.."

After lunch needed and about three problems where done I decided maybe I should talk to Rhyme about her brother. The same as in the UG the RG can't have everybody's problems fixed by everyone but, it didn't mean people couldn't try to help. So I explained things to Rhyme. "Hmmm. Sounds like him…" Rhyme still remembered her brother but, her entry fee was still gone. "I'll help him, thanks Neku. You were asking if you wanted me or you to do it right, to help him out?" Rhyme wouldn't cease to amazing me with her skills at picking up everything said, and everything not. "Yeah." I looked at the clock, "I gotta bounce but, later." She smiled, and we waved until I left the hall.

My least favorite class is history. I don't like history, I don't really care about history. It's a good story from a bias point of view and only sixty percent of it is even right. Joshua tried to "educate me" about Shibuya's history once, to this day I can't tell you the exact details. Here's the real issue with me and history, you can't logic it, it doesn't express anything or any world view because of how its taught, and its all memorization. I absolutely hate memorizing useless facts. They do not help me, the take up space in my mind.

Here is why I love history. Shiki was in my history class. Shiki was good at history. She liked small details and she thought random facts where interesting. It was nice to watch one of my friends not struggle with the social mold that they were put into, because it fit them. It was nice to watch her, in her own body, achieve something naturally. It was nice to see her skill matter. She was becoming a better person everyday, even if she might not understand everything. Shiki felt happy, not jealous of her friends.

The period went by very slowly for me but not as slowly as math. I tried to treat the class also, as a game. How many answers could I get right? How much time did I have left before the timer ran out, and class was over? I don't think most of my friends continue to live as if they were in the UG, but I felt more alive there than here, so comparisons weren't too bad right?

Out of everything surprising the RG has showed me after the UG is missing Joshua. As his partner I hated him, he was snarky, rash, over competent. He had every right to be, which annoyed me even more. He had killed me but, maybe in the end that hadn't been such a bad thing after all. Joshua had been the only person I had every really meet that….Just "got it". He could see my world and I could see his more than anyone had gotten close to ever seeing. Even if Joshua pissed me off the other half of the time, I genuinely liked Joshua. Joshua, of course, wasn't here. I knew he wouldn't be. I like to think he misses me too, but I can't really say for sure. Shibuya feels different the streets and the over all atmosphere of the city. The composer plays a new song everyday. Some days, you could tell when he played a song for one of us.

I could see Joshua in my art class if I really try. He would sit by the bowl of fruit, eating one of them lazily and tease me while waving a HB3 pencil in my face. I could easily see it, his condescending tone saying ,"My, my Neku I thought you knew how to make art….Your working to fast…Heh I think that's the best you've done yet". I could see him with a sketch pad redesigning things, just as he did Shibuya. But I knew even if he would have been the best skilled student, he would be the least expressive. Josh didn't understand CAT, so he probably didn't understand other art.

CAT, BANSKY,NOLABLE that was art. Art told you to wake up, to look around, to live YOUR life. Not the life everyone expected of you and wanted from you. There are things in life you should do and then there are thing you shouldn't do just for the simple fact of the rules themselves where flawed. There was a mass rat race on this planet and, supposedly everyone had to take part in it. That wasn't life.. People took part in the rat race because it was easier not to think, people took part in a rat race because they LET themselves be part of it. Consumerism, predigest , war, all the things today no one paid attention to, the things that were NORMAL in life. Why where they normal? Because thinking was too hard. Because people weren't creative enough to see the other options. Accepting whatever people where told, true or false, was easier.

"CAT" let me practice on his café wall. Most people don't know anything about legal walls. An artist can get permission to graffiti. Still people made graffiti sound like it was an issue, where the issue? Personally, the need for permission itself was silly but, unfortunately you can't avoid all the system. There are too many people playing in that game. I wasn't very good at graffiti honestly, but CAT told me that was okay, I wasn't any good yet because I hadn't practiced. Usually he would give me a prompt and I would follow it, and he would tell me how to improve. Some days people off the street would help too, it became a group project. It was refreshing to see all those worlds.

My parents frustrated me. Not because they are bad parents but, neither of them really cared about art. They didn't say I COULDN'T make art, though. And my parents really do love me, in their way. But, they are the perfect example of people caught up in their own world and their own problems. Maybe, that wasn't bad either, but part of me wishes they had missed me more. I had been back from the UG for about a month and they were already going back to the same things they always did before in less than a month. I wanted to show them life was more than work, and that life was something amazing. It's difficult to show them anything because I never knew how they really feel about anything I bring home.

The reactions from my mother to my art where usually supportive, she would act wide eyed and smile, reassure she was proud of me. Although my mother had no real taste or understanding for art the gesture itself was enough to satisfy me. My father, on the other hand, would blink confusedly before remembering politeness and mumbling with a smile that the work was, "interesting". Neither of my parents understood the underlying meaning, or attempted to understand, or really even understood there was something more underneath. The UG taught me friends, family, always intended well and their opinions meant another reflection of the world outside yet, no one really understood another's inside universe.

Out of all the things I missed while in the UG about the real life, I missed being by myself. Having friends had a purpose even if people lied and intentions went array half the time, but the drama associated with people was stifling. I know here even in the RG friends are important, but unlike in the game they didn't always have your back. Alone time was what I missed the most sorely when Joshua was around. Prissy composer. Friends would get in your face and tear you down before building you back up in the UG, in RG they left you to pick up yourself. Occasionally, when I'm alone ill think of Josh and wonder if he's lonely on his composer pedestal. Even if I was only a proxy, I think I taught Joshua something about life too; that life wasn't a game and life was to create and connect with people.

I spent less time alone now. Shiki and Rhyme would drag me for crepes, or to the mall, for ramen, for some reason that seemed plausible. The spring air humming with humidity and the lanterns lit in the setting dusk of the vendors shops. Red, white and yellow lanterns would emit a soft glow that shadowed the lines across the girls now laughing faces. Rhyme would bunch over laughing, a sweet simple smile across her face in between eating strawberry crepes. Shiki flailed rapidly like her arms where trying to start a fire- "Neku?"- and now for some reason they are staring at me. "Neku? You okay? HELLO?" Shiki waved her hand in front of my face. "You there? COME BACK to us!" Shaking my head I smiled. "Sorry- what?" Shiki blushed ten shades of red and Rhyme had tears from laughing come over her eyes. A pause to look at one another before Shiki raised her head and put on her best stern face. She prepped herself. "We where talking about if you would go out with anyone, specifically-M-." Rhyme laughed a higher pitch, a hiccup. "Joshua! " My mouth hung open, "That I WHAT?" Maybe I was right, friends are a hassle, but, their my hassle.


End file.
